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Here is a new and improved recipe for the famous northeastern Thai green papaya salad! This time around, I provide you with lots of tricks, tips, and explanations to make sure you can really master this classic, delicious salad. This is also a very healthy dish, so I can really let myself indulge without having to hold back!
Serve it with some sticky rice, and try changing up the vegetables because in Thailand we make hundreds of variations on this salad! Try this apple and chayote salad or corn and cucumber salad for example!
Note also that green papaya salad is gluten-free. Enjoy!
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Thai Green Papaya Salad ส้มตำไทย (som tum)
- Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups julienned green papaya, soak in ice water for 10-15 minutes until they are firmer (See video @1:20 on how to julienne green papaya)
- 2 cloves garlic
- Thai chilies, to taste
- 1 ½ Tbsp palm sugar, finely chopped, packed
- 2-3 long beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 3 Tbsp roasted peanuts (see note)
- 1 heaping Tbsp small dried shrimp, roughly chop if you have large ones
- 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (see note)
- 2 tsp tamarind juice (what is tamarind?)
- 1 ½ Tbsp fish sauce
- ½ cup grape tomato halves or a small tomato cut into wedges
- Serving suggestion: sticky rice and BBQ chicken are classic pairings with papaya salad!
Notes:
I prefer buying raw peanuts and roasting them myself for the best flavour. Simply put them in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15-18 minutes until they're golden, stirring them half way through for even roasting. Keep leftover roasted peanuts in the fridge or freezer to keep them fresher longer.
See video for the Thai way of cutting lime. If you have a big juicy lime, 2 Tbsp of juice is about ⅔ of the lime (so if you cut the lime the way I did in the video, you'll only need to juice piece #1 and #2). If your lime is small or doesn't have much juice, use the whole lime. You can always measure out the lime juice before adding to be sure.
Instructions
- Drain the soaked papaya well and place in a bowl lined with 2 layers of paper towel to absorb excess water. You want to have as little water on the papaya as possible so as to not dilute the dressing.
- In a large mortar and pestle, pound garlic and chilies until there are no more big chunks (pieces of chili skin are fine).
- Add palm sugar and mash with the pestle until it turns into a wet paste and all the chunks are dissolved.
- Add long beans and pound just until they're broken.
- Add dried shrimp and peanuts and pound to break the peanuts up slightly.
- Add fish sauce, tamarind juice, and lime juice, adding the squeezed lime skin into the mortar as well for extra lime fragrance. Stir with a large spoon to mix and dissolve the sugar.
- Add shredded papaya and tomatoes, and mix using the pound-and-flip method as shown in the video @8:40. Once everything looks well mixed and the tomatoes are just slightly crushed, it's done!
- Plate and sprinkle with the remaining peanuts (I forgot to do this in the video!).
- For a truly classic Northeastern Thai meal, serve with sticky rice and the ultimate BBQ chicken
If you have a small mortar and pestle:
- Follow instructions above in your small mortar, and stop before adding the papaya and tomatoes.
- Transfer the dressing into a large mixing bowl, then add the papaya and tomatoes and toss, pushing on the tomatoes slightly to bruise and release a bit of the juice.
- Plate and sprinkle with the remaining peanuts.
If you don't have any mortar and pestle:
- Finely mince or grate the garlic and finely mince the chilies and add them to a mixing bowl.
- Put finely chopped palm sugar in a small bowl and drizzle a little hot water on it and mash it into a paste with a fork.
- Add fish sauce, lime juice and tamarind and stir until the sugar is dissolved and add to the garlic and chilies. Stir everything around to infuse the garlic and chilies into the dressing.
- Roughly chop half the peanuts and add to the mixing bowl.
- Bruise the long beans until broken using anything heavy you can find in the kitchen (a bottle, a can, rolling pin) then add to the mixing bowl.
- Add tomatoes and press on them to bruise and release the juice slightly.
- Add papaya and toss to mix.
- Plate and garnish with the remaining peanuts.
Yoko
Your som tum recipe brings me back to Thailand in my mouth! Absolutely love it! If you want to use นำ้ปลาร้า, how much do you put and do you reduce the amount of any other ingredients?
★★★★★
Pailin Chongchitnant
Thank you! How much pla ra to use is entirely up to you! You can sub the pla ra for some of the fish sauce in roughly equal amounts. So try reducing the fish sauce by half first, then add the same amount of pla ra. You'll have to taste and adjust after because different pla ra has different levels of saltiness, so this is just a starting point.
Martina
Done this recipe several times and always delicious. Exactly as the one I felt in love for my first time in Thailand!
★★★★★
Saar
What’d you save the peanuts for?! Oh the suspense! Looks great I’ll try this asap
David
This was perfect! I went light on the fish sauce because I’ve had that backfire on me before. As soon as I added the right amount it was แซ่บอีหลีเด้อ!!!
Josh
I just did as per your recipe today, and it turned out very good. Thank you for sharing such easy and yummy recipe
★★★★★
Dani
Delicious and authentic som tum!
★★★★★
Connie
My favorite salad, but have never made my own Great video presentation! I saw green papayas in 2 markets today. Going back to buy one and trying this recipe out. Thank you!
★★★★★
Fatima
You are an absolute delight to watch. Going to check out your other recipes.
Amy
I'm hoping to try this recipe for a party of 25 people. How should I adjust the recipe for serving size of 10-12?
Pailin Chongchitnant
You can multiply all ingredients proportionally. You can start pounding garlic and chilies in mortar and pestle, and then transfer to a big mixing bowl to do the rest. Good luck!
Ellanie Cabrera
Thanks Pailin
★★★★
LO
Thanks for the video.
I have seen some Thai use live small crabs on pounding the mixture. Do you cut it out for some reason. I know un-cooked crabs are not healthy to eat but very tasteful.
Regards
Lo
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi Lo, I didn't "cut it out" so to speak, it's just an option people can ask for among other things...kind of like restaurants offering a choice to add bacon to a burger. So it's not a usual/default part of papaya salad. I like them, but I don't use them here simply because I can't find them!
Bin
Great recipe! I find it hard to measure how much is 1 1/2 cup of shredded papaya. How do you convert that to weight? Thank you!
★★★★★
Adam from HTK
Hi Bin! Thanks 🙂 ... and I just Google that sort of thing ... https://www.google.com/search?q=cup+of+shredded+papaya+in+grams Cheers! Adam
Todd
This is my first time to your site, and I have to say that's one of the most charming cooking exhibitions I've ever seen. I can't wait to try the recipe and check you out again.
★★★★★
Monai
Hello!
I love making this salad. However I find to make it the day of the party ir occasion I have to really prep ahead if time (I always take forever to make it it seems lol).
Can you make this a day ahead? Or will it loose its crunchyness? Or at least can you shred the papaya and chop the veggies (long bean and tomatoes) a day before and then the day of pound them all together with the dressing aspect (the garlic, chilies, peanut fish sauce, lime, &tamarind)?
And if that is possible do I have to keep the papaya in water or can I have it in a zip lock bag or plastic wrap bowl until the next day?
Thanks for any answers 😁
Pailin Chongchitnant
You can chop all the ingredients in advance, keep in the fridge, and put it together the day of. You can even make the dressing in advance 🙂
Jean
Hello
I am wondering where in Vancouver i could buy a mortar and pestle to make som tam with.
Adam The HTK Minion
Hi! She get's her stuff almost entirely online now (mostly through Amazon) - check out https://kit.co/hotthaikitchen/kitchen-tools-i-use for some examples including the clay mortar and pestle. Cheers! Adam
Sindy
This is hands-down the best green papaya salad I have ever had including in restaurants. I usually use a bottled dressing but decided to try this instead and boy am I glad I did!I will never make it any other way again!
Lionfruit
This recipe is so amazing. My hubby and I have it down after a few tries. I prep the veg and he's on grinding duty! Just wondering if you have a mango salad recipe and whether it's different from this salad?
★★★★★
Pailin Chongchitnant
You can use this recipe with mango as well, but mango salad in Thailand is usually a little different, which I don't have the recipe for yet, but request noted 🙂
Winnie
Just wanted to say Bravo! To you and the receipt! My whole family likes it better than what we bought from restaurants. And we live in An area with lots of good Thai restaurants!
★★★★★
Adam The HTK Minion
Great to hear! 🙂
Zivi
Thanks for the great video and authentic recipe. I have visited Thailand and regularly eat Thai food & papaya salad so I was excited to find this recipe that is no doubt authentic.
I made a couple substitutions as I was in a southwest kitchen with limited ingredients - sharing for those who might find useful (I dubbed it americana papaya salad).
• Used dried arbol chili instead of Thai chili.
• Used Worcester sauce instead of tamarind.
• Used cane sugar in place of palm sugar (+ a bit of local honey)
• Left out the shrimp and fish sauce (we’re vegetarian).
• fresh green beans instead of long beans.
Consensus was that everyone liked it and ate it and (for those who were familiar) it tasted very close to the real thing!
Love all the tips here - whole limes, mortar and pestle, papaya ice bath. Great stuff thanks
Adam The HTK Intern
Thanks for this Zivi!
Lorraine Murray
I have never made this salad. I want to try it,but I have questions to ask you. Can I use a bell pepper in place of chili peppers, also can I use other nuts I like, and what do you do with the rest of the papaya once you chop what you need for the salad or do you chop the entire papaya and store the rest in the refrigerator? Thank u
David
This was perfect! I went light on the fish sauce because I’ve had that backfire on me before. As soon as I added the right amount it was แซ่บอีหลีเด้อ!!!
★★★★★
Baba Y
This is the best papaya salad. All my guests minds were blown! I dream about it at night sometimes.
★★★★★
Adam The HTK Intern
Awesome! 🙂
Cathelyn
You are so adorable to watch! I love Papaya salad since a co- worker of mine introduced this dish to me. My son loves it too, so I must learn how to make this so we don’t have to order and have it delivered to find out it doesn’t have the same taste I was hoping for. Thanks for sharing this video!
bo
my fave dish!
★★★★★
Mark
I love this but recently was out of dried shrimp and beans so added substituted broccoli and corn. The broccoli florets absorb a lot of the sauce too!
Chris
How exactly does one *substitute* broccoli and corn for dried shrimp and long beans? Must the substitute not bear at least some resemblance to the ingredient it’s standing in for?
Mark
Not "authentic" but part of cooking is working with what you have to make something similar, yet different, but tastes great.
Justin
Just made this after a trip to Hawaii. It is a faithful recreation of what I had there! I bought blanched peanuts and roasted them (so good!) and made Tamarind juice from pulp I got from the Asian store by my house. They even had some very good green papaya for cheap! Thank you for this excellent recipe!
★★★★★
Sara Cohen
I made the recipe as instructed.it was delicious! I didn’t have tamarind at home so I decided to use a little balsamic vinegar. It came out delicious! I have a papaya tree in front of my house. I look forward to adding this dish to my repertoire
. Thank you.
Brigette
this recipe is everything you could ever want! I can't believe I've never made it at home - its so easy!
★★★★★
San
I made this but since we don't have palm sugar I used muscovado, I also adjusted the chili's as my family don't like spicy food and skipped the dried shrimp and tamarind as it's not available in the grocery. So delicious, reminded me of the papaya salad I had when I went to Thailand.
Thank you, Pailin! 🙂
★★★★★
Sh
Best green papaya salad I ever had. unfortunately the papaya I used was a bit ripe. Still, turned out perfect.
★★★★★
Ruth
Absolutely perfect! I lived in thailand for several years and ate som tum multiple times per week. It was the food that I was saddest to leave behind when we moved back to Canada. I never tried ordering it at a restaurant for fear that it wouldn't taste the same, and would ruin my fond memories. Your recipe tasted just as I remember the som tum on my soi tasting, and I practically cried as I ate it. Thank you!!
★★★★★
Adam The HTK Intern
Awwww! Thanks Ruth! I just passed this on to Pailin to make sure she sees it 🙂
Robbie
So damn good!
★★★★★
Anupama
Could I use the korean tiny fermented shrimp that goes in kimchi instead of dried shrimp? It's what I have but I don't want to mess up my dressing!
Pailin Chongchitnant
You could just leave it out. Don't add fermented anything to it or it will change the flavour!
Michele
Awesome recipe, love som tam, a family favourite
★★★★★
Robert
A classic Thai dish found on most every Thai restaurant menu. Who knew I could make as good a version at home? The HTK recipe and accompanying video are all you need to make an authentic Som Tum.
★★★★★
Michael
Best Thai salad ever!
I make it once a week and I eat it every day when I'm visiting Thailand.
Great original recipe here from Pai.
★★★★★
Stephen Chan
My all-time favourite Thai salad, and is one of my first recipes I tried with Pai's recipes, so good and it's always in my rotation from day one till now.
★★★★★